iL-CURRENT
November 7, 2024
Michael Kröger: "Green hydrogen: driving forward technology for industry"
Only a few days to go - then the premiere of the Clean Tech Innovation Day will take place on November 11 (9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Heidelberg Congress Center). In this interview, our Managing Director Dr. Michael Kröger describes the intentions of InnovationLab as a technology transfer platform and "host" of the event. The key aspects are to highlight the enormous potential of H2 technologies and to accelerate joint consortium partnerships.
Michael, why is hydrogen the right topic for InnovationLab?
Michael Kröger: InnovationLab is driven by the desire to support the transformation towards sustainable industrial value creation in Germany. Green hydrogen then plays a key role in the chemical sector, for example, or in steel and glass. We are all facing a systemic challenge here. We cannot just turn one adjusting screw and expect a fundamental change and positive effect. Rather, changes need to be made at several points. Several players need to work on solutions at the same time. Taken together, the result is a functioning system.
Green hydrogen is generally about production, distribution and use. The processing industry, which supplies materials, systems and components to these areas, is of central importance. For success and for economic value creation in Germany. The task of iL is to operate at the interface between science and industry. To bring together complementary partners along the value chain as a nexus. In particular, I see it as our mission to create trust between several partners. This enables innovation to work faster and more efficiently.
At the Clean Tech Innovation Day on November 11, we have a panel and moderated sessions on start-ups, applications and technologies. That simply fits.
"The targeted promotion of start-ups is a must for us as a society," says iL Managing Director Dr. Michael Kröger ahead of the Clean Tech Innovation Day in Heidelberg, where start-ups will be highlighted as accelerators. Image: InnovationLab
What actually means actually innovation - and what exactly is in the H2-area urgently necessary be?
Kröger: Basically, this is always geared towards specific applications that are driven by new questions and problems and require new solutions. The focus of the Clean Tech Innovation Day is on the one hand on the presentation of specific applications and on the other hand on the discussion of how we can implement these together in an economically profitable way. This transformation will be discussed by scientists and H2 experts.
Science provides new findings and solutions, which then need to be translated into concrete solutions by industry. When it comes to green hydrogen, we are facing disruptive changes. This is why we need start-ups in particular, for whom the path to change is the only successful path. They take entrepreneurial risks in an uncertain environment in which large companies are often unable to act as dynamically. Start-ups learn through failure - and they become better. If a start-up fails completely, the market learns in an efficient way. That is why the targeted promotion of start-ups is a must for us as a society.
Why look forward to you particularly especially to the event on 11. November?
Kröger: The close co-production with the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and the H2UB and its managers Dr. Doris Wittneben and Uwe Kerkmann is a huge benefit for us. I am sure that long-lasting partnerships will develop here beyond the Clean Tech Innovation Day. Dr. Gunther Kegel, CEO of Pepperl & Fuchs and President of ZVEI and VDE, is also someone who has an impact far beyond the metropolitan region thanks to his wealth of experience as an entrepreneur. I am therefore very much looking forward to his keynote presentation.
Offer for start-ups in the early and scale-up phase
Speaking of sustainable effect: Which do you promise do you for for iL and its partners?
Kröger: Firstly, a strengthening as a platform in the field of H2 technologies, which will require a future community of consortium partners to meet the challenge. Secondly, we at iL want to create a unique offering for technology start-ups in the early and scale-up phase. Thirdly, in close cooperation with the city of Heidelberg, we have the unique opportunity to establish a pilot electrolysis factory to attract businesses from globally oriented hydrogen champions to Heidelberg and the metropolitan region. And fourthly, we want to promote the transfer with already established and large companies, some of which have been iL shareholders for many years.
Cooperation sealed: Consultant interregional innovation Coen de Graaf from Noord-Brabant (from left to right), Business Development Manager Emilio Manrique from the Holst Centre, Michael Kröger from InnovationLab and Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Economic Affairs Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut after signing a cooperation agreement between iL and the Holst Centre 2023 in Eindhoven. Picture: InnovationLab
What needs it from scientific, economic, social and political side, to green hydrogen as a topic of the future decisive forward forward to bring forward?
Kröger: In any case, we need staying power and a willingness to cooperate at regional, national and international level. This means trust in collaboration with several partners. In Germany, networking between university partners and industry, the promotion of technology transfer, still falls short. For industry, it is about being able to assess and bear risks in order to bring new technologies and products to market. If science and its promotion are strongly separated from its economic implementation and, above all, promoted in a pre-competitive manner, we will not make any progress as a society and location. Scientific knowledge does not automatically mean a competitive advantage, but can also be translated into industrial value creation and jobs elsewhere.
We are stopping funding too early in Germany. You only have to look to the Netherlands, for example to the Brainport Industries Campus in the Noord-Brabant region. I was there last year with the Minister of Economic Affairs of Baden-Württemberg, Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, and a large delegation from Baden-Württemberg. We were impressed by the understanding of innovation in Noord-Brabant and the close cooperation in the innovation systems there. The idea of collaborative research, development and industrialization is similar to that of the InnovationLab. Only implemented twenty times larger with space for significantly more companies. Every additional research group, every additional company at a collaborative location enriches the entire ecosystem. I am therefore convinced that we in Germany must also agree on priority centers where we pool knowledge, partners, skills and ultimately resources. Baden-Württemberg is predestined for the topic of green hydrogen.
Michael, thank you for for the interview.
Steering the fortunes of the Heidelberg site together: Michael Kröger (from left to right), FLEXOO Managing Director Dr. Janusz Schinke, iL authorized signatory Dr. Tanja Benedict and Scientific Managing Director and KIT Professor Ulrich Lemmer. Picture: InnovationLab
About the person
Dr. Michael Kröger has extensive experience in science and industry, particularly in the areas of technology, marketing, sales and production management. After completing his doctorate in electrical engineering at the TU Braunschweig and research work at Princeton University, he took on leadership roles in industry in technology development, market launch and operational management. Since 2022, he has been Managing Director of InnovationLab GmbH, where he is realigning and expanding the company to focus on clean tech and life science technologies.
In December 2023, he founded FLEXOO GmbH, a spin-off from InnovationLab, where he is driving forward the development of printed electronics.
About InnovationLab
InnovationLab GmbH was founded in 2008 as a joint venture between three leading global corporations and the two top universities Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg. Together with HEIDELBERG, BASF and SAP, these two form the current five well-known shareholders of iL. The company has proven expertise in printed electronics and has spun off this business area with FLEXOO GmbH. The application-oriented research and transfer platform continues to fulfill its role as a problem solver and accelerator in the fields of clean tech and life science technologies.
At the interface between science and business, iL also provides an interdisciplinary working environment for universities, companies and start-ups as a high-quality service. To further improve the infrastructure, the S1 and S2 laboratories were extensively renovated and modernized.
Further Further information to the InnovationLab is available at:
Contact: Dr. Michael Kröger, Managing Director of InnovationLab GmbH, e-mail: michael.kroeger@innovationlab.de
Information on the "Clean Tech Innovation Day"
Note: Further information on the procedure and registration can be found on our website at
Registration ends tomorrow, November 8, three days before the "Clean Tech Innovation Day" (November 11). Catering will be provided on St. Martin's Day at the Heidelberg Congress Center near the train station.
Joachim Klaehn
Head of Communications
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